Eye of the Beholder
by SydneyLouWho
Summary: As the old cliché says, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. An eventual 100 chapter drabble set based off of a list of the 100 most beautiful words in the English language. For the Fanfiction ImagiNation "One Hundred Words" challenge.
1. Ailurophile

**This is a series of (hopefully) 100 drabbles revolving around a list of the 100 most beautiful words in the English language (linked on profile). Written for the Fanfiction ImagiNation's "One Hundred Words" challenge.**

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**Ailurophile** - _a cat lover_

Katniss would never understand about that cat, and her sister's immediate protection of it. She couldn't fathom that someone could love such a stupid, ugly cat.

To Prim, the cat was more than just a dirty, old cat. To find a yellow cat in the mud during a torrential downpour was a sort of hope. Yellow was a hopeful color, she was sure of it.

Prim had always been hopeful, seeing the good in all of the pain and suffering of her world.

As much as she loved her sister, she didn't know if she'd forgive her if she'd drowned _that cat._

She couldn't explain how much she loved that cat. To her, she loved Buttercup in the same way that she loved Katniss. Katniss and Buttercup had a lot in common, anyway, both stubborn and willing to fight to survive. It was a fierceness Prim knew she'd never have.

She figured that's why Katniss and Buttercup didn't get along, because they were one in the same, too stubborn to accept that they adored one another.

With Buttercup curled at her feet, Prim slept well. She could feel his pulse with her toes and the steady beating made her feel safe. The heartbeat was something steady and constant in her ever-changing world, focusing more on surviving than living.

Of course, she could've felt Katniss or her mother's pulses, but that would've seemed more odd.

While her sister was in the arena, Prim hid her sobs in Buttercup's fur and, as much as he hated water, he didn't seem to mind. That was the best thing about cats, she thought; unlike dogs they didn't try to be cheery in the worst of times. Cats had empathy.

Prim's last thought as the first bombs exploded was about her sister and mother and about how she wished that her death wouldn't hurt them as they knew it would.

Her second-to-last thought was _who's going to feed the cat?_


	2. Untoward

**I know this veers toward the M-rated range and that's not allowed, but I tried by very hardest not to make it explicit.**

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**Untoward** - _unseemly; inappropriate_

It isn't right and she knows it. She knows that with every heavy footfall of her boots in the snow, it becomes more wrong.

She almost stops, but an invisible force, the devil on her shoulder, guides her fist to the door. Three hard raps and he opens it.

Her request is unexpected, but he understands and he complies.

The liquor burns her throat and it's not a synthetic flame this time, but a real one, wild and uninhibited. She is the girl on fire.

His eyes are full of smoke, as are her own and, as they become more clouded, the two become closer.

Her lips reach his first and it is a wet and messy kiss. She is not familiar with this feeling, the primitive hunger that started in her gut and spread outward, so she can't control it.

He knows it's not right. He knows as their kisses grow hungrier and she loses more and more control that it's so wrong, that she's just a child and, more likely than not, has never experienced the hunger, that doesn't even know what it is. He wants to stop, but the alcohol is stronger than he is; she is stronger than he is, a wildfire burning him up. It burns their clothes, article by article, and they seek each other's bare skin to ease the pain.

He hasn't done this in a while and he realized how bad his physical condition is. The place reeks of alcohol and sweat and their breathing is labored. It is so, so wrong.

To say that, although it was terribly wrong, it felt right, would be an outright lie. He took advantage of a child. She gave herself to a man she didn't love. It can't be justified by any false confessions of love or tissue paper promises. They don't even try to justify their actions.

Instead, they make a silent promise to forget.


End file.
